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Employment arrangements: Trends in part-time work
INDEX(a) OF TRENDS IN PART-TIME AND FULL-TIME EMPLOYMENT (a) Base year 1973=100. Source: Labour Force Survey. Industry High growth in the service industries is one of the most often cited factors associated with the growth in demand for part-time workers. Part-time workers tend to be highly concentrated in the service industries, reflecting the cost advantages of part-time labour in these areas. In 1993, 79% of all part-time workers were employed in just 4 of the 12 major industry groupings and all of these were service industries: wholesale and retail trade (28%); community services (26%); recreation, personal and other services (14%); and finance, property and business services (10%). It is precisely these industries which have experienced the greatest employment growth over the last two decades. In 1973 manufacturing was the largest industry grouping in terms of employment, followed by wholesale and retail trade, community services, construction, and agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting. By 1993 the largest employer had become wholesale and retail trade, followed by community services. Manufacturing had slipped to third, while construction and agriculture were replaced as the fourth and fifth largest employers by finance, property and business services, and recreation, personal and other services. Although part-time employment growth was greatest in service industries such as wholesale and retail trade, community services etc., increases were recorded in all of the 12 major industrial categories. In construction the proportion increased almost four-fold between 1973 and 1993, from 4% to 16%, and in public administration the proportion almost trebled from 4% to 12%. In the service industries the increase in the proportion of people working part-time was largely due to employment growth in part-time work outstripping employment growth in full-time work. However, in agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting; electricity, gas and water; manufacturing; construction; and communications, growth in part-time employment was accentuated by declines in full-time employment. The specific reasons for strong growth in part-time work vary according to the industry in question. Nevertheless, some of the more general developments likely to have had an effect in a number of areas include:
Source: Labour Force Survey TRENDS IN PART-TIME EMPLOYMENT BY INDUSTRY
Source: Labour Force Survey Occupation As might be expected given industry concentrations, part-time workers are also concentrated in a narrow range of occupations. In 1993, the proportion of part-time workers was above the average of 24% in 15 out of 52 occupation groups. These same occupation groups accounted for close to three-quarters of all part-time workers. The 15 largest occupation groups in terms of full-time employment accounted for about half of all full-time workers. Cleaners had the highest proportion of people working part-time at 63%. Other occupations with more than 50% working part-time in 1993 were miscellaneous salespersons (a group which includes bar attendants, waiters and waitresses), tellers, cashiers and ticket salespersons, and sales assistants. In 1993, sales assistants accounted for 14% of all part-time workers and was the largest occupation group in terms of the overall number of people working part-time. The next largest occupation group was miscellaneous labourers and related workers which accounted for 9% of all part-time workers. This group includes storemen, kitchenhands and hospital ward helpers. SELECTED OCCUPATIONS, 1993
Source: Labour Force Survey Demographic characteristics The majority of part-time workers (75% in 1993) are women and the increasing participation of women in the labour force has been one of the major factors on the supply side of the labour market associated with the increase in part-time employment. The female labour force participation rate increased 10 percentage points between 1973 and 1993, rising from 41% to 51%. Over 90% of the increase was due to an increase in participation in the part-time labour market. Increasingly women are combining work with family responsibilities and part-time work provides an important means of achieving this. In 1993 the incidence of part-time work was highest among married women at 47% compared to 35% for unmarried women. The incidence of part-time work among men in 1993 was 10%. Students are another important source of part-time labour and the increase in participation in education among 15-24 year olds, particularly through the 1980s, has been another important trend contributing to an increase in the supply of potential part-time workers (see Education - National summary tables). Participation in full-time education among 15-24 year olds increased from 25% to 38% between 1982 and 1992. Over the same period participation in the full-time labour force by 15-24 year olds declined, from 61% to 48%, while participation in the part-time labour force increased, from 11% to 21%. About 40% of the overall increase in participation in the part-time labour force between 1973 and 1993 was due to increased participation by 15-24 year olds, a large proportion of whom are students. One other group which requires special mention with respect to part-time work is older male workers, particularly those in retirement. Although men in the 55-64 year age range represented only a little over 3% of the total part-time labour force in 1993, 12% of those who were working, worked part-time, compared to 6% of men aged 25-54 years. This partly reflects the use of part-time work as a means of easing into retirement (see Early retirement among men). EDUCATION AND LABOUR FORCE PARTICIPATION OF 15-24 YEAR OLDS Source: Labour Force Survey; Survey of Transition from Education to Work. Part-time work and unemployment The fact that such a large proportion of the pool of people working or wishing to work part-time are married women and students impacts on the relationship between employment growth and unemployment. A number of researchers have argued that among these particular groups a large proportion are likely to have been outside the labour force prior to obtaining a job. Similarly, if married women or students lose their part-time jobs they are likely to leave the labour force, rather than enter the pool of unemployed for any extended period. In essence this means that many of the participants in the part-time labour market effectively bypass the unemployment pool upon entering or exiting the labour force. This has critical implications for the way in which job growth affects measured unemployment. As the mix of new jobs changes, with more jobs being part-time, the effect of overall job growth on measured unemployment is diminished. This partly explains why at the present time Australia has a high unemployment rate despite many years of high overall employment growth. Some support for this argument can be found in the fact that increases in part-time work have corresponded with increases in participation in the labour force by women, particularly married women, and students. Some support can also be found in the fact that in 1992, 67% of people outside the labour force who wanted to work said they would prefer a part-time job. Moreover, 64% of discouraged jobseekers i.e. people who had left the labour force because they could not find a job, also said they would prefer part-time work. At the same time only 14% of the people who were unemployed said they were looking for part-time rather than full-time work. Underemployment The majority of people working part-time do so by choice. Nevertheless, with the growth in unemployment in recent years the number of people working part-time who would prefer more hours has been increasing, as has the number of full-time workers forced to work part-time hours because of lack of work. Combined, these two groups of workers comprise the underemployed. In 1993, 580,000 people were underemployed, a slight decline from the previous year. The underemployment rate (underemployed expressed as a percentage of the labour force) was 7%. About 12% of the underemployed were full-time workers stood down or on short time because of insufficient work. The remainder, just over half a million, were part-time workers. Of these, 186,000 (36%) had actively looked for full-time work in the four weeks prior to the survey. The half million underemployed part-time workers represented 28% of all part-time workers in 1993. 62% of underemployed part-time workers were women compared to 75% of all part-time workers. The highest incidence of underemployment among male part-time workers was in the 25-34 years age group of whom 60% wanted to work more hours. The highest incidence of underemployment among women was 43% in the 20-24 years age group. Overall, 44% of male part-time workers were underemployed compared to 23% of female part-time workers. UNDEREMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT RATES Source: Labour Force Survey; Survey of Transition from Education to Work. TOTAL AND UNDEREMPLOYED PART-TIME WORKERS, AUGUST 1993
Source: Labour Force Survey Endnotes 1 See for example Lewis, H. (1990 ) Part-time Work: Trends and Issues and Gregory, R.G. (1990) Jobs and Gender: a Lego Approach to the Australian Labour Market Discussion Paper No. 244, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Australian National University.


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Yes, yes yep!
Welcome to the.. Jay-Z extravaganza
I'd like to introduce my band right now
Just Blaze and the Blazettes, hehe
Right now I want you to give the drummer some
No ma really, give the drummer some
Touch the untouchable, break the unbreakable
Shake the unshakeable (it's Hovi baby)
Yeah, ch-chi-uh, uh-ch-ch-uh, un-breakable
Rock the unrockable (it's Hovi baby)
Follow the flow, look
They say a midget standin on the giant's shoulder can see much
Further than the giant.. (the giant..)
So I got the whole rap world on my shoulder they tryin to see
Further than I am.. (than I am..)
And I have been tryin to be patient with they preoccupation
With David and Goliath.. (Goliath..)
But sooner or later, that patience gonna run it's course
And I'm forced to be a tyrant.. (be a tyrant..)
But bein tyrant, comin through your environment
Iron mask, nigga iron gas, nigga I am back
With "The Team," no I in that
Are. O. C., y'all not eyein that
Y'all don't see, clearly cause the reign ain't gone
"The Dynasty," no not Ming but Shawn's
Dame careems, nigga it's the gangsta team
Stop your run, one of the reasons that they call us gangrene
The other reason, we got a gang of green
If there's better at gettin cheddar that remains to be seen, nigga
Woooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!! Jeah, jeah
Can't touch the untouchable, break the unbreakable
Shake the unshakeable (it's Hovi baby)
Can't see the unseeable, reach the unreachable
Do the impossible (it's Hovi baby)
Can't move the unmoveable, stop the unstoppable..
Jeah, look
I'm so far ahead of my time, I'm bout to start another life
Look behind you, I'm bout to pass you twice
Back to the future and gotta slow up for the present
I'm fast, niggaz can't get past my past
How they propose to deal with my perfect present?
When I unwrap "The Gift & the Curse" in one session
Ain't no livin person can test him
Only two restin in heaven can be mentioned in the same breath as him
Seven straight summers, critics might not admit it
But nobody in rap did it, quite like I did it
If you did it I done it before, you get I had it
Got mad at it and don't want it no more
And that goes for everything from flippin that raw
Flippin whores, flippin vocal chords, don't get it twisted
Get it right, did different, did it better, did it nice
Did the impossible then did it twice (get it right)
Yup! Hovi's home, the global phone
The world is back in order the number one rap recorder is back
You cats overfelt yourself
You couldn't help yourself, now witness the reel for reel
In my absence cats get, absent-minded
Now it's time to rewind and remind 'em
Why I'm in the position that I am
Changin the game, my game could nail Madonna
Well after I'm gone, they'll honor
History in the makin, Pistol Pete
Leave competition shakin without missin the beat
Chasin the hi-hat all over the track
The snare is scared of the air in here, boom!
And plus I get paper dog, don't let me forget
The watch face so blue like it's holdin it's breath
Can't see me skill for skill or check for check
It's the bow tie flow dog, I bring it to your neck
Live and correct I will bring it to your set
I got now, I don't care who got next
Rapper slash exec, Kordell Stewart
Your flow all y'all usin is mine, you're all useless
You ain't a factor, who are you foolin?
You all are faggots, you takin it backwards (takin it backwards)
I'm tryin to progress with this rap shit
Who was gassin 'em? (fuck outta here!)

subset: commoncrawl


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Shane Patrick Victorino (born November 30, 1980 in Wailuku, Hawaii) is an outfielder in Major League Baseball who plays for the Philadelphia Phillies. He is a switch-hitter and throws right-handed.
He is a former Hawaii state high school track and field champ (Spring, 1999) for St. Anthony High School in the 100 m, 200 m, and 400 m dashes. His 100 m time (10.80) was a state record. He has been consistently clocked at 3.7-3.8 sec. from home to first right-handed. He also has a strong arm, with 24 career outfield assists.
Victorino was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1999 in the sixth round of the 1999 amateur draft out of St. Anthony High School in Wailuku, Hawaii. He spent most of the 1999 through 2005 seasons in the minor leagues.


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Adolf Cluss in the 1860s
Admiral John Dahlgren, Commander of the U.S. Navy Yard, one of the most important supporter of Adolf Cluss in the 1850s and 1860s
Architect Adolf Cluss on the construction site of the National Museum, 1880
Career and Profession
For additional information about Clusss biography and career in Washington, see also Adolf Cluss.
Technical Draftsman
Independent Architect
Public Service
Technical Draftsman
For the first six months after his arrival in the United States, Cluss lived in New York and improved his English-language skills. Looking for work, he traveled to Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. In the capital he found a position as technical draftsman for the US Coast Survey and worked during the summer of 1849 on board a naval vessel surveying the coastlines of Maryland and Virginia. At the Coast Survey, a colleague of his was the German immigrant William Wuerdemann, who, some four decades later, asked Cluss to design a private residence for his family.
In 1850, Cluss moved from being a technical draftsman to the Ordnance Department of the Washington Navy Yard. In this position, he designed cannons and smelting ovens, among other things. It is likely that he was also responsible for the design of the New Ordnance Foundry.
In this period, Cluss was hardly satisfied with either his professional position or with life in Washington. He himself wrote that he hated his position at the Navy Yard. He sought other ways of earnings a living and played with the idea of returning to Europe. In 1852, he asked his father for money to start up a business as a bookseller. His father responded by suggesting that he set up a cement factory and brickyard, but Adolf Cluss claimed that would be "zu schmuzig" (too dirty).
In early 1855, Cluss was able to find another position and moved, still as a technical draftsman, to the US Treasury Department. His impressions of this period, gathered over a total of three years of employment there, were published in a critical pamphlet in 1869 by the American Institute of Architects.
After his journey to Europe in 1859, when Cluss received his share of the inheritance left by his father, Cluss settled for a time in Philadelphia and co-founded a brewery with a friend named Fischer. The business soon failed and Cluss returned to the Ordnance Department at the Washington Navy Yard, working closely with its commander, Admiral John A. Dahlgren, known in military history for his work in modernizing naval weapons.
Independent Architect
In his private architectural practice from 1862 to 1889, Adolf Cluss designed nearly 90 buildings including schools, churches, large-scale government and commercial buildings, and many residences.
While still employed at the Navy Yard, and in the midst of the American Civil War, Cluss founded in 1862 his own architectural office together with his fellow German immigrant, Joseph Wildrich von Kammerhueber. During the firm's first year, Kammerhueber worked full time out of an office in Cluss's home on Second Street, NW. Cluss continued working at the Navy Yard for another year while working part time in the new firm. The professional breakthrough came in 1864 with the construction of Washington's first public school building, the Wallach School.
During his time as an independent architect, Cluss worked with many different partners. After his stormy relationship with Kammerhueber came to an end in 1868, Cluss worked by himself or with only a few employees until 1877, when he set up a new partnership with architect Frederick Daniel. This arrangement came to an early end just one year later. From 1879 to 1889, Cluss worked in partnership with the architect Paul Schulze. In 1867 Cluss was named a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, which elected him to its executive board in 1890.
Further Information about Cluss as Architect.
Public Service
Adolf Cluss served in government positions with the District of Columbia and federal governments and frequently competed for commissions for new government buildings. He designed many public schools for the District of Columbia, federal buildings for the Departments of Agriculture and Interior and for the Army and Navy, a city hall in Alexandria, Virginia, and competed unsuccessfully for other commissions for federal and local government buildings (see Design Submissions). In the early 1870s, Cluss found himself named to a public position again. In 1870, he was named head of the Bureau of Buildings of the City of Washington. One year later, he was named City Engineer and member of the Board of Public Works, a position which he had to leave after a scandal in 1874.
Further Information about Cluss as Engineer
From 1889 to 1894, Cluss, already retired from his private practice, took on another public position, that of an Inspector of Public Buildings for the United States Government.
Further Information about Cluss as Inspector of Public Buildings
After retiring from his architectural practice and his federal government service in the early 1890s, Cluss received appointments as a builder or general contractor for major projects. He superintended projects for the Army Corps of Engineers in the late 1890s (see No. 92 and 93) and for the Hearst School for Girls in 1900. General John A. Wilson of the Army Corps of Engineers and New York architect Robert Gibson, who designed the Hearst School, both knew Cluss well and valued his reputation for insisting on the highest standards of workmanship and materials. Undoubtedly, they felt more comfortable knowing that a man of Cluss's vast knowledge of the construction business would be supervising the day-to-day work. For his part, Cluss seemed in his 70s to be unable to accept an easy and quiet retired life. Cluss had also worked as a builder in the early 1870s at a much busier time in his life when he superintended the construction of the District of Columbia jail for the federal government's Supervising Architect, A.B. Mullett.
In his later years Cluss also helped to finance further residential building in Washington. At the time of his death in 1905, he had invested more than half of all his assets in home mortgages with one company that built and financed the sale of modest middle class houses in the city.


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Independence and chicken-fried steak
"Only a rank degenerate would drive 1,500 miles across Texas without eating a chicken-fried steak." —Larry McMurtry
It's been said there are three food groups in Texas: Tex-Mex, barbecue, and chicken-fried steak. And as chicken-fried steak is also known as the (unofficial) state dish of Texas, I can't think of anything more appropriate to serve on March 2, Texas Independence Day. (In case you're wondering, this day marks our freedom from Mexico in 1836, which was the beginning of Texas' nine-year stint as a sovereign nation before it became part of the United States of America.)
While many foods hold sway over my heart, none (except for my beloved refried beans) reigns supreme more than chicken-fried steak, which is neither chicken nor steak (at least in the dry-aged, marbled-slab of prime beef sense of the word). This Texan delicacy is a cutlet of tenderized top-round beef, battered and fried in a skillet (much like fried chicken, hence the name, though there is also chicken-fried chicken, to further confuse non-Texan eaters), and served with cream gravy.
In other parts of the country, you may see it labeled country fried steak, but a Texan would never call it that—it's always chicken fried to us. While the first time the term appeared in print is said to have been in the early 1950's, I have it on good authority that people were eating it long before then.
If chicken-fried steak sounds suspiciously like Wiener schnitzel, you are correct in your assumption. German immigrants to Texas are credited with crafting this variation, but instead of using veal, these early Texans made it with the more readily available beef. And as the cuts of meat were a bit tough, the process of tenderizing, battering, frying and coating it in gravy rendered it more palatable.
When I've spoken of chicken-fried steak to the uninitiated, people always get hung up on the choice of beef: "Wouldn't it be better if it were made with, say, a porterhouse?" they'll ask. But they're missing the point. I don't want to put you off and say it tastes like shoe leather (which its detractors are wont to complain), but after beating the beef and frying it up, there is just no advantage to using prime steak. Much like chili or barbecued brisket, chicken-fried steak was a tasty and innovative solution to only having not-so-choice beef on hand.
It's not often found on menus here in the Northeast, and when it is, usually it's a frozen, breaded cutlet, coated in either mediocre cream gravy, or even worse, brown gravy. I did see it on the menu once in Chicago, at a place I no longer remember the name. I was there on business and was having lunch with my colleagues. Of course, I was determined to try it and convinced the others at the table they should order it as well. "It'll be a taste of Texas," I said, "but please don't blame me if it's a poor interpretation."
Everyone bravely followed my lead, and fortunately, it wasn't a bad rendition—it was freshly fried and surprisingly delicious. Most enjoyed their chicken-fried-steak dinners, save for one grump who found it inedible. "Why did you make me order this?" she said. "It's not steak, it's just bad beef covered in batter."
She was mistaken—it's so much more than that. But that negative view comes with the chicken-fried-steak territory: you have to know that there are a select few who just don't get it. But that's OK because it leaves more for the rest of us.
All Texans have their favorite chicken-fried steak and I'm no exception: mine is my dad's. His version was my introduction to the dish and I was fortunate as a child to be able to eat it at least once a week. I knew dinner was going to be divine if I came home to the smells and sounds of chicken-fried steak frying in the pan.
And while I've had hundreds of different chicken-fried steaks since, his is still superior to all others. He is renowned for his recipe and method, a craft he learned from his mother, who learned it from her mother. So not only is his the best, but it's also part of my culinary legacy—a fine inheritance, if I don't say so myself.
Now before I outline how to make it, a few words of caution. The preparation of chicken-fried steak is a violent, messy and dangerous affair. Do not be afraid of small chunks of meat flying from your tenderizer and adhering to your walls. Do not be afraid of being covered head to toe in a paste-like mixture of flour, batter and grease.
And do not be afraid of hot oil splattering and some screechy sizzling as you flip the steaks in the skillet. Be patient: in the midst of this bloody battle, this culinary chaos, you will ultimately find both the beauty and order that is a plate of chicken-fried steak covered in cream gravy.
If you still have reservations about chicken-fried steak, consider these words from the late Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Jerry Flemmons: "As splendid and noble as barbecue and Tex-Mex are, both pale before that Great God Beef dish, chicken-fried steak. No single food better defines the Texas character; it has, in fact, become a kind of nutritive metaphor for the romanticized, prairie-hardened personality of Texans." High praise, indeed!
I now leave you with a recipe for this dish, which through hard work and culinary ingenuity catapults a cut of gristled beef from its rough-hewn, lowly beginnings to delectable and iconic heights. And since this edible evolution embodies the hardscrabble, self-sufficient and creative spirit of Texas, I'd say chicken-fried steak is definitely the perfect dish for Texas Independence Day.
Chicken-fried steak
- 1 1/2 pounds top-round steak
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
- 3 large eggs, beaten
- 1/2 cup milk or buttermilk
- Lard or vegetable oil for frying
- Cream gravy, for serving
- Cut the top-round steak into 4 pieces. Pound beef with a meat tenderizer until flattened and almost doubled in size. Lightly season the meat on both sides with half of the salt and pepper (1 teaspoon of each for all the meat).
- Place flour in a large bowl and add the remaining salt, black pepper, and the cayenne. Taste and adjust seasonings. In another large bowl, mix eggs with milk.
- Take a piece of the tenderized beef and coat in flour. Dip the coated beef into the egg mixture and then dip back into the flour again. Repeat for each piece of beef.
- In a large skillet, preferably cast-iron, heat 1 inch of oil to 300°F. Take the pieces of coated beef and gently place into the skillet. There will be a lot of popping and hissing, so be careful. After about 3 or 4 minutes, or when the blood starts bubbling out of the top of the steak, with tongs gently turn over the steaks and cook for 5 more minutes.
- Remove from skillet and drain on a paper-towel-lined plate. While cooking remaining steaks, you can keep cooked steaks warm in an oven set at 200 degrees.
- Serve with cream gravy.


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Memorial Day weekend was full of bounty at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California as new swag has shipped and arrived in their Star Traders store. Of particular interest to collectors would be the new Star Tours sets and Mickey's Jedi Starfighter. But these aren't the only pieces that caught our eye.
While this merchandise was well within the planning stages before The House of Mouse acquired Lucasfilm, the legacy that began in 1987 with Star Tours and even Captain EO reflects a synergy well established, and whether you like it or not, Disney Star Wars is here to stay. It is great to see some homage paid to the 30thAnniversary of Return of the Jedi in the form of a logo sticker on some of the merchandise, but we'd like to see more celebration here. This likely will happen in Celebration Europe 2, so U.S. fans who can't make the trip will have to settle for Comic-Con and repeated viewings on Spike, unless Disney, Lucas, Hasbro, and the other licensees have something up their sleeves this summer.
The second wave of Hasbro Star Tours exclusive action figure sets are here (retail $34.99 each). There are no changes in the packaging from the 2010 and 2011 sets and a few of the figures are re-issued or repainted and now only include 3 figures per set. The Search for the Rebel Spy set includes a repainted Signal Droid (now blue), a Seeker Droid, and an Imperial Sky Trooper (re-issued) while the Sector 2 Security Set has a G2 Droid, C-3PO (TSC re-issued), and an RX-Droid (repainted Captain Rex mold from 2002). The 2011 sets are still on shelves (and online) so you can easily pick up all 4 sets if you need them. Needless to say, you'll have ample figures (if you also have the 2010 Boarding Party set) to make quite the appealing Star Tours diorama with that spectacular Starspeeder 1000 vehicle.
A Sarlacc Attack set featuring Disney characters as their Star Wars alter egos was a nice surprise with echoes of Hasbro's own action figure battle pack. The five figures included have all been offered before, but is a good deal for $29.95, considering the last time some of these figures were issued was in 2007. The set definitely stands out as a nice ROTJ homage and includes the 30thanniversary logo sticker.
Mickey's Jedi Starfighter($34.95) is piece that's definitely needed for my collection, especially since the Starfighter itself includes some nifty "Hasbro" like play features and an R2-MK that seats comfortably in the wing.
Other new items include a Donald Duck as Boba Fett statue ($99.95), a Star Wars Thermal Detonator Hot Potato game ($24.95), which is brilliant in concept and play, and new Ewok plush with Kneesaa and Chip n Dale as Ewoks.
The Build-A-Droid station has not received any new domes or parts.
If you're in the Southern California area, it's definitely worth your time to visit Disneyland and Star Traders. These items are currently not available in Downtown Disney, so if you can't make it to the park, a friend who's going soon or is an annual passholder may be some options.
Happy Hunting!


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Last month Keith (Hakim Mohammad) Ellison of Minnesota became the first Muslim elected to serve in the United States Congress and shocked many Americans by declaring that he would take his oath of office by placing his hand on the Quran rather than the Bible. Can a true believer in the Islamic doctrine found in the Quran swear allegiance to our Constitution? Those who profess a sincere belief in Allah say "no!"
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In 1789, George Washington, our first president under the Constitution, took his oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. So help me God." Placing his hand on the Holy Scriptures, Washington recognized the God who had led our Pilgrim fathers on their journey across the Atlantic in 1620 and who gave our Founding Fathers the impetus to begin a new nation in 1776. Soon after Washington's oath, Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789, which required all judges of the federal courts to "faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties" incumbent upon them "agreeably to the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God." Placing their hand on the Bible, the members of Congress had already sworn to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States ... So help me God."
TRENDING: 'Squad' member urges Dems to abandon Biden
Thus began a long tradition that extended both to state and federal government of acknowledging the Judeo-Christian God as the source of our law and liberty. Today, some believe that it does not matter what we believe or before Whom we take our oath. But as Keith Ellison is demonstrating, it does matter.
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To support the Constitution of the United States one must uphold an underlying principle of that document, liberty of conscience, which is the right of every person to worship God according to the dictates of his conscience, without interference by the government. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, in his "Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States" in 1833, observed concerning the First Amendment that "The rights of conscience are, indeed, beyond the just reach of any human power. They are given by God and cannot be encroached upon by human authority without a criminal disobedience of the precepts of natural, as well as revealed religion." Justice Story echoed the sentiments of Thomas Jefferson in his Bill for Religious Freedom in 1777 in which he stated that "Almighty God" (El Shaddai in Hebrew) "hath created the mind free and manifested His supreme will that free it shall remain by making it altogether insusceptible of restraint." It was a specific God who endowed us with a freedom of conscience with which government could not interfere.
The Islamic faith rejects our God and believes that the state must mandate the worship of its own god, Allah. Last week, the Associated Press reported that the Islamic Court in Bulo Burto, a small town in southern Somalia, had ordered that residents would be beheaded "according to Islamic law" if they failed to pray five times a day. Sheik Hussein Barre Rage, chairman of the Islamic court, stated, "As Muslims, we should practice Islam fully ... and that is what our religion enjoins us to do." In other regions of Somalia, Islamic courts have introduced flogging, public execution and other punishments for those who deny Quranic law or refuse to worship Allah.
Islamic law is simply incompatible with our law. Jaafar Sheikh Idris, founder and chairman of American Open University, a radical Islamic school that has received funding from suspected al-Qaida sources and which supports Islamic law, recently stated that "Islam cannot be separated from the state," and that no Muslim elected to Congress or the White House can swear to uphold the United States Constitution and still be a Muslim, because the law of Allah as expressed in the Quran is supreme. Idris was recently deported for his illegal activities. While we certainly disagree with Idris' radical extremism, he at least knows what Islam is all about!
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According to a Dec. 6, 2006, WorldNetDaily article, Keith Ellison's campaign was not only backed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which shares the views of American Open University, but he also spoke to the North American Islamic Federation in November in Minneapolis with American Open University on the same program. Perhaps Ellison is confused about what he believes, or else he has another agenda. In either event, according to Idris, Ellison cannot swear an oath on the Quran and an allegiance to our Constitution at the same time.
Our Constitution states, "Each House [of Congress] shall be the judge ... of the qualifications of its own members." Enough evidence exists for Congress to question Ellison's qualifications to be a member of Congress as well as his commitment to the Constitution in view of his apparent determination to embrace the Quran and an Islamic philosophy directly contrary to the principles of the Constitution. But common sense alone dictates that in the midst of a war with Islamic terrorists we should not place someone in a position of great power who shares their doctrine. In 1943, we would never have allowed a member of Congress to take their oath on "Mein Kampf," or someone in the 1950s to swear allegiance to the "Communist Manifesto." Congress has the authority and should act to prohibit Ellison from taking the congressional oath today!
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William Worsley
Review by Ian Johnston
Posted on 23 October 2007
Source Kino Video DVD (American Silent Horror Collection)
Categories 31 Days of Horror
I guess that for a lot of viewers today Lon Chaney - father of Wolf Man Lon Chaney Jr. - is a name they're familiar with without actually having seen any of his movies. So The Penalty, the start of Chaney's real fame in leading roles, is as good a place as any to get a taste of the Chaney magic. Billed in his day as the "Man of a Thousand Faces", Lon Chaney used his background in vaudeville to develop an array of personal makeup effects that impressed audiences of the time, the most famous roles being Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (it's claimed that the makeup effects used here, covering over one eye, left him permanently short-sighted) and Erik in The Phantom of the Opera. Of course, not all his roles required these kinds of makeup special effects, and whether makeup is involved or not, there seems to be a general theme in Chaney's performances of physical transformation—in Tod Browning's late-twenties' The Unknown he's Alonzo the Armless, a circus freak; and in his only sound film, The Unholy Three, he had a statement notarised to prove that he was responsible for five different voices in the film.
In The Penalty Chaney transforms his body into that of a double amputee (needless to say, the 1920 intertitles have no qualms about calling him a cripple). There are no elaborate makeup effects. We can see his true face here, and the hammy grimacing that Chaney could indulge in is kept pretty much under control. The evil of his character of Blizzard, king of the San Francisco criminal underworld, is generally conveyed by a slight scowl to his features, which only softens when he's with his underlings, when he's applying a mask of pretence to the outside world, or when he's enraptured by the power of music. (Yes, here music calms the savage beast.)
Chaney's tour de force in The Penalty is his use of a harness that strapped his legs behind him, thus giving the convincing physical appearance of a legless amputee. There's no use of trick photography or doubles and hardly any use of camera angles or compositions to hide Chaney's true limbs (compare, in contrast, the tiring lengths Peter Jackson went to trying to get us to believe in his hobbits). Instead, Chaney's body minus his legs is deliberately on display. In a powerful physical performance his body is constantly in movement. Equipped with half-size crutches, he's forever on the move, climbing stairs, jumping on and off chairs, hobbling across the floor. There are some bravura touches, such as the way, in his study, he hauls himself from one peg to another up the wall so that he can look through the high-placed window into the room next door; or how he clambers up and down ropes between his room and the secret basement; or even how, in one scene, he drops down a fireman's pole to land on his stumps and then move quickly across the floor.
The story's grotesque premise is set up in the film's prologue, Blizzard's defining scene from his childhood. The young boy is injured in an accident and an incompetent physician, Dr. Ferris, needlessly amputates the boy's legs. Twenty-seven years later the boy has become Blizzard, King of San Francisco's Barbary Coast underworld, and intent on revenge. Ferris is now a leading figure in the city, his daughter Barbara is a would-be sculptor, and his assistant Dr. Wilmot Allen is Barbara's fiancé. Blizzard's plan of revenge is to use Barbara as a lure - he makes sure he's the only available candidate to act as a model for Barbara's make-or-break sculpture of "Satan After The Fall" - in order to force Dr. Ferris to amputate Allen's legs and then to graft them on to Blizzard's stumps.
This is the core of what is a wider plan to take control of the city—"for my mangled limbs," he cries, "the city shall pay me with the pleasures of a Nero and the powers of a Caesar!" Here he's a Mabuse-like figure, moving his underlings like figures on a chessboard, laying down his spider's web over the city. There are some striking similarities with Lang's master criminal, but the connections with both Norbert Jacques' novel and Lang's film Dr Mabuse the Gambler (respectively appearing one and two years later) are doubtless coincidental. The original pulp novel of The Penalty by the now-forgotten Gouverneur Morris was published in 1913 and the figure represented by Blizzard was a common type in popular fiction of the time which then crossed over into cinema (Professor Moriarty, Dr. Fu Manchu, Fantymas, and so forth). At any rate, even before we meet Blizzard we are witness to the power he holds over the underworld when his thug Frisco Pete knifes a dance hall girl who has tried to escape him—the wide shot of the woman's body hanging out from the dance hall balcony is a powerfully brutal one. As the film progresses, scene after scene - whether isolated acts of violence like the murder of the government agent outside Blizzard's house or his more mysterious machinations (what are all his dance hall girls doing locked in a room making hats? where do the thousands of foreign labourers fit in?) - build up this picture of Blizzard's absolute control of his world.
At one point Blizzard refers to his father as a "distinguished man", a paragon no doubt of middle-class society, but one who "detested little boys with their legs chopped off. So at fifteen I hobbled out of his life." Blizzard's disability is the visualisation of the affront he represents at several levels to "normal" society. At the simplest level there's the fear and horror that is generated by his physical difference. In this sense he is for Barbara's fiancé, for example, a "monster" who "ought to be chloroformed." Even Blizzard's lieutenant O'Hagan reveals how he shares in this general prejudice towards Blizzard's disability when he responds in disbelief to the details of Blizzard's plans with "You talk as if you had legs," as if Blizzard has through the loss of his limbs lost any right to such ambition.
Rather surprisingly Blizzard also poses a political threat to his society. He's under investigation by the Federal Secret Service whose head, Lichtenstein, talks of Blizzard being the master of "the underground powers of the Reds," and in fact Blizzard's major plan involves the marshalling of "ten thousand foreign malcontents" in a concerted attack on the forces of law and order. There's a historical background to what seems now a rather bizarre twist to the film's story. The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had seen a series of anarchist attacks and assassinations (the background to novels like Dostoevsky's The Possessed, Henry James' The Princess Casamassima, and Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent), and in 1919, the year before The Penalty's release, a series of bombings and attempted bombings took place, part of the so-called Red Scare. Still, in terms of Blizzard's role within the film, his involvement in some kind of anarcho-communist conspiracy seems pretty bizarre.
Blizzard further threatens the bourgeois world with his assertive sexuality. (Those seeking symbolism can go to town with his ever-upright set of crutches.) The sensuality of Blizzard's world is marked from the start in the dance hall sequence that shows what are clearly prostitutes picking up clients; there's a sexually-charged luxuriousness to the first shot of Blizzard's private room with its framing of entwined leaves and branches that encloses the woman waiting for him there; and the Secret Service head Lichtenstein warns his agent Rose that "a woman who enters that den risks worse than death." It is in fact Rose herself that succumbs to Blizzard's charms, falling in love with him, and ending the film doing his bidding in his plan to lure Barbara's fiancé Allen to his house.
On the other hand, Barbara ultimately does not respond to him, and her involuntary mocking laughter at his overtures - where, in spite of her bohemian aspirations, her class and upbringing rise to claim her - is the moment when Blizzard's own fortunes turn. It's also the moment when Barbara rejects the art world she has been striving towards and returns to the bourgeois fold, as Allen comforts her with "True women need love, a home, children. He has made you forget that" and she responds immediately with "I'll marry you, dear, whenever you wish."
Allen has always represented the bourgeois world's antagonism towards art - in the first scene in Barbara's studio he bullies an admiring art critic out the door - and this is a further level at which Blizzard presents an affront to this world. He's explicitly associated with aesthetic appreciation and performance, whether lecturing authoritatively to Barbara or playing the piano in his private room, and there's a clear sexual link here too. Blizzard always selects one of his dance hall girls to be both his lover and the operator of the piano pedals that his legless torso cannot reach.
The Penalty is a fascinating example of Hollywood film style in 1920. It's a film that's almost completely devoid of close ups but it adopts a very productive use of scene intercutting that goes well beyond the sort of Griffithian race-to-the-finish that you get at the climax of Birth of a Nation or Intolerance. The intercutting tends to be more thematic or contrastive—so, for example, when Lichtenstein sits in his office and details the Blizzard case, this is intercut with shots that advance Blizzard's side of the narrative. This intercutting of parallel scenes - Blizzard's visit to Barbara's studio intercut with Rose's search of his room is another example - is the structure that pushes the story forward at a pacy beat.
But the other side of being a Hollywood film of 1920 is that The Penalty can't carry through the lurid horror, the provocative sexuality, and the brutal violence that lies in its premise. By rights the 'penalty' of the title should be the price that this society has to pay for what has been done to Blizzard as a boy, but sadly an almost ludicrous moralism asserts itself in the last few minutes of the film. Blizzard is made the one to pay the penalty. It's a denouement that we want to both laugh at and resist, and in the end it's best simply to ignore it in order to get the most out of the film.
1979The Elephant Man
1980My Bloody Valentine
1981Who Can Kill a Child?
1976Cannibal Holocaust
1980Let Sleeping Corpses Lie
1974John Carpenter's Vampires
1998Jaws 2
1978A Warning to the Curious
1994The Survivor
1981Cannibal Ferox
1981The Nights of Terror
1981Death Becomes Her
1992Alice, Sweet Alice
1976Body Double
1984Invocation of My Demon Brother
1969Phantasm II
1988Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals
1977The Wicker Man
1973Maniac Cop
1988The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires
1974The Penalty
1920Boxing Helena
1993Chew on This
2005Night of the Creeps
1986Night of the Lepus
1972Near Dark
1987Army of Darkness
1992The Brood
1979The Lift
1988Silent Witness
1999The Shaft
2001We don't do comments anymore, but you may contact us here or find us on Twitter or Facebook.


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Three weeks after a group of desktop gunsmiths had its leased 3D printer seized by the digital manufacturing firm that owned it, the weaponeers have quietly restarted plans to build a gun entirely of printed parts. The group has also begun expanding their operation with outside help, including space for ballistics testing provided by a mysterious firm involved in the defense industry.
Cody Wilson, founder of the Wiki Weapon project, tells Danger Room that the unnamed company's owner "wanted to offer me a safe haven, basically." Wilson describes the company as a "private defense firm" in San Antonio, Texas, but the company's owner is wary of negative publicity and Wilson doesn't want to reveal the firm's name without consent.
"We've got basically a space where we can do experiments. Ballistics, basically. So it's not quite a range — we've got a range — but we've got floor space where we can literally test the guns and set up instrumentation," Wilson says.
A second unnamed company has also stepped in to volunteer manufacturing space. That company works with 3D printers and is based in a light industrial district in nearby Austin, where Wilson lives.
But the new assistance wouldn't have happened had Wiki Weapon not first run into trouble acquiring a 3D desktop printer — which use layers of heated materials to create everyday objects. At the low-end, they can be used to print everything from silverware and jewelry to Warhammer miniatures. At the high-end, the printers are used in industries ranging from dentistry to aerospace. But Wiki Weapon intended to go much further by producing a working pistol.
The group was stymied in late September after a printer leased from desktop manufacturer Stratasys was seized by the company over fears the group was preparing an illegal and unlicensed gun undetectable by airport security scanners. The federal law Stratasys alleged Wilson intended to break – the Undetectable Firearms Act – provides an exemption for plastic gun prototypes made by licensed manufacturers. Within days after his printer was taken away, Wilson was also questioned after visiting a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms office in Austin. The group is now seeking a license from the agency.
Later, Wilson was approached by a licensed gun manufacturer who was apparently willing to let the group use his personal 3D printer. "But he got cold feet, so we walked away from it," Wilson says.
The desktop gunsmiths are also forming a slew of corporations to protect Wiki Weapon against potential lawsuits. The online collective overseeing the project, called Defense Distributed, is being turned into a nonprofit 501(c)(3) engaged in "charitable public interest publishing," Wilson says, which will distribute weapons blueprints online for free. A new research and development company created by the group called Liberty Laboratories is being incorporated in Texas and will be responsible for printing, testing and firing the guns. The group plans to start a third company for raising and protecting its private assets.
It's not hard to see why. An early attempt at fundraising over Indiegogo was blocked until the group raised $20,000 over the online currency network Bitcoin. But the amount raised so far is fairly limited, and Wilson says the move is necessary to raise private capital.
Adding a sense of legitimacy to the project may also be a way to shield the group from some criticism. Ever since the group had its first printer taken, a raging debate has been carried out online over questions of gun control and the potential dangers regarding a future where anyone could potentially download a gun off the internet.
Gun control advocates slammed Wilson. Josh Horwitz, the executive director for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, called Wilson an "extremist" involved in a "blatant, undisguised attempt to radically alter our system of government." Backing up Wilson and Wiki Weapon were a loose coalition of gun enthusiasts, techies, libertarians and Reddit geeks.
At the same time, however, hobbyists have continued to experiment with printed gun parts. Earlier this month, one at-home manufacturer produced a working fire control group — the component which handles a gun's trigger motion — for an AK-47 rifle. The debate will likely resume if or when Wiki Weapon produces a fully printed gun. "We have a printer on standby right now," Wilson says. But he added that the group is looking at another five to six weeks at minimum before they're ready, and that's a big maybe. When (or if) the group receives a firearms license is still indeterminate.
"We want to prototype a few things first," he says. "I think there's no rush for me to go ahead and get into renting an Objet printer or something more high-end until one of these first few prototypes shows it has a promise."
The good news for the group is that they've found companies willing to associate with DIY gun makers. It hasn't been easy, so far. But don't say isn't easy isn't impossible either.


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- Italy, Italy
- Joined on Jul 05, 2012
Hi, my name is Chiara, I'm from Italy, I live in a small town near Orvieto in Umbria. Last year I started scrapbooking and I enjoy it so much. I'm a primary school teacher and I also scrap with children. Pelosona is the name of my first cat ^_^


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Send Results to This Email:
Street Address:
3615 Central Ave. Memphis, TN 38111
Permit Cost: $43.5 million
Project Cost: $53 million
Permit Date: Applied February 2013
Completion: TBA
Owner: Tennessee Board of Regents
3615 Central Ave. • Memphis, TN 38111
Tenant: University of Memphis
Architect: N/A
Contractor: Rentenbach Constructors
Details: The University of Memphis has filed a $43.5 million permit with the city-county Office of Construction Code Enforcement for a 285,300-square-foot residence hall on campus.
The permit lists the Tennessee Board of Regents – the system that operates the U of M and other colleges throughout the state – as the owner of the property at 3615 Central Ave.
No contractor or architect is included on the permit application, but the State Building Commission last year awarded the construction and construction management contract to Knoxville-based Rentenbach Constructors.
The project calls for a $53 million, 754-bed, five-story residence hall that will replace the 40-year-old Richardson Towers when it opens in 2015.
The 10-story Richardson Towers includes two dormitory buildings – one for men and one for women – that house more than 1,000 students. The hall will be built on the site of an existing parking lot south of Richardson, which will be razed.
175 Peabody Place
Memphis, TN 38103
Loan Amount: $22.5 million
Loan Date: Feb. 14, 2013
Maturity Date: March 2018
Borrower: CWI Beale Street Hotel LLC
Lender: Wells Fargo Bank NA
Details: The new owner of the Hampton Inn & Suites Memphis-Beale Street at 175 Peabody Place Downtown, has filed a $22.5 million loan on the property after acquiring the 144-room hotel.
CWI Beale Street Hotel LLC – an affiliate of Lake Forest, Ill.-based Carey Watermark Investors Inc. – filed the leasehold deed of trust, assignment of leases and rents, security agreement and fixture filing Feb. 14 through Wells Fargo NA.
The company on Tuesday, Feb. 19, announced it had bought five hotels in the Hilton Worldwide portfolio from entities related to Fairwood Capital LLC.
In addition to buying the Hampton Inn Beale, Carey Watermark Investors bought hotels in Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama and Texas.
CWI's total investment in the properties is "approximately $104 million, including acquisition-related costs and $64.5 million of debt," according to a press release.
Built in 1999, the 88,528-square-foot Hampton sits at the southwest corner of Peabody Place and South Third Street.
The transaction also includes a neighboring parking garage. The previous owner, operating as Fairwood Investors, leased the hotel from Memphis City Center Revenue Corp. through a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement.
3815 Advantage Way
Memphis, TN 38128
Sale Amount: $7.2 million
Sale Date: Feb. 15, 2013
Buyer: 215-39 Jamesbridge Holdings LLC
Seller: R. Spencer Clift III, substitute trustee
Details: The 432-unit Jamesbridge apartments at 3689 James Road in Raleigh sold to a special servicer for $7.2 million after a foreclosure.
A single-purpose entity called 215-39 Jamesbridge Holdings LLC – an affiliate of Bethesda, Md.-based CWCapital Asset Management LLC – bought the multifamily property in a Feb. 15 substitute trustee's deed from R. Spencer Clift III of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz PC.
A first-run foreclosure notice was filed in January against the former owner, Jamesbridge Group LLC, which had defaulted on a $13.5 million loan through Lehman Brothers Bank FSB dated Sept. 21, 2006, and later owned by LaSalle Bank NA.
This was the second foreclosure notice filed on the property for the same loan. Then-deed holder Bank of America brought foreclosure proceedings against Jamesbridge Group in 2009.
The Jamesbridge sits on 29.76 acres on the south side of James Road in Raleigh. Its addresses are listed as either 3689 James Road or 3815 Advantage Way Drive, between Jackson Avenue and Highland Road.
The complex contains 351,020 square feet and is dotted with lakes and pedestrian bridges. Its 2012 appraised value is $6.4 million, according to the Shelby County Assessor of Property.
Built in 1986, the complex has 24 three-story buildings, each with 18 one- and two-bedroom units. It also has a clubhouse/office building and swimming pool.
6055 Primacy Parkway
Memphis, TN 38119
Sale Amount: $6.2 million
Sale Date: Feb. 11, 2013
Buyer: Jefferson-Pilot Investments Inc.
Seller: Robert J. Pinstein, substitute trustee
Details: The 129,104-square-foot Lakecrest II office building at 6055 Primacy Parkway in East Memphis has sold for $6.2 million following a foreclosure.
Jefferson-Pilot Investments Inc. – related to Jefferson-Pilot Life Insurance Co., the lender that began the foreclosure proceedings – bought the property in a Feb. 11 substitute trustee's deed from Robert J. Pinstein of the law firm Bourland, Heflin, Alvarez, Minor & Matthews PLC.
A first-run foreclosure notice was filed in January against the owner, 6055 Primacy LLC, which had defaulted on a $9.5 million deed of trust, security agreement and fixture filing through Jefferson-Pilot Life Insurance dated Jan. 11, 2007.
The company bought the four-story Class B office building in 2007 for $12.6 million from Lakecrest II Memphis LLC, subsequently filing the loan that's now in default.


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Andrew Sutherland was a sophomore at Albany High School in California when he founded Quizlet in 2005. He was 15 years old. For the first 420 days of Quizlet's existence, Andrew took it upon himself to do all the designing, programming, debugging, and perfecting for his concept. Boy, how things change. Now, still a student—albeit, a junior at MIT—Andrew's little project has a dedicated team of people and has helped 13 million users (in 2010 alone). Quizlet offers 5,017,611 flashcard sets, provides 154,264,083 terms and definitions, has logged over 430,364,928 answers, and currently boasts 1,760,735 registered users (it's free and will remain so). It's the largest independent study site in the U.S. "My mission is to make learning not a chore," he says. In fact, Quizlet is an immediately useful, personalized learning experience with direct learning results—and it's rather addicting. Go ahead and try it out for yourself, but before you do, read this interview with Andrew to find out a bit more of its interesting backstory.
Victor: Why did you create Quizlet?
Andrew: I created Quizlet for my French III class in high school. I had to learn a giant list of 111 french animal vocabulary terms and I didn't have a good way to do it. So I had this idea for a tool that would help me learn all this vocab I had to learn every week. If I had looked online for such a tool I probably would have found something but instead I made my own thing…and now Quizlet is more than 10 times bigger than all the other study tools like it. But I had this vision for a really easy to use and efficient tool, and that's what I built. What keeps me motivated to keep working on it is knowing how many people need something like Quizlet and how much they appreciate that it exists. If you take a look at our testimonials page, http://quizlet.com/testimonials/ , there are literally thousands of people who've written in to express thanks.
Victor: What does the name mean?
Andrew: Ahh, the name Quizlet comes from Quizlette, the name of the "little" quizzes my French teacher gave in high school.
Victor: Who uses Quizlet?
Andrew: A lot of people! It's mainly students in middle school, high school, and college. Quizlet is great for both the high-achieving types who want to study efficiently and get good grades, and for the lazier types who might not study at all but do because Quizlet is easy and quick to use. We have a lot of teachers who use it to create lists for their students, and there are ways to see who studied the most and got the top scores on our games. Finally, we have plenty of people who use it for all sorts of things I didn't expect: bartenders learning drink recipes, soccer referees using it to learn rules of the game. The other day a nuclear technician got fired for using Quizlet to learn about the procedures at a nuclear plant (he posted all the data publicly, see http://bit.ly/gRkVmh )
We get 3.5 million unique people using Quizlet a month, and that number is growing quickly.
Victor: What's the ultimate vision for Quizlet?
Andrew: Quizlet's already a great tool for learning vocabulary, but what about grammar? verb conjugations? If you think of language as writing, reading, listening, and speaking, I think Quizlet should help you develop skills in all four of those areas. For example, one of the problems with foreign language learning is that kids don't spend enough time speaking, because it's hard for teachers to spend time with students to listen to them individually. But that can be addressed if we build really good tools. I want Quizlet to be a one-stop shop for everything a language learner needs to do. After we get that down, there are lots of other exciting subjects for which to build high-quality tools.
Victor: How does being a student yourself influence how you design Quizlet?
Andrew: Quizlet has always been very student-focused. We haven't built a lot of features that would be helpful to teachers, because we want students to want to use Quizlet, not use it because they're forced to. I think this is actually a pretty key reason for Quizlet's success: we've created something that students see as valuable and worth their time. It's not caught up in a lot of theory or big ideas about how to teach any particular topic. It's extremely practical.
Victor: How can studying be a social experience for students?
Andrew: Social interaction was built into Quizlet from the beginning. It's very easy to share your sets with your classmates. When you're studying for a test, there are probably 30 other people who have to know the exact same material. They should be working together and helping each other out! Quizlet lets you create one canonical list of words and then have other students collaborate to make the best possible lists. They can also have live discussions about the class or the material. Having a social environment also creates a very positive learning environment, where kids reap social rewards for helping each other, and you don't have to be the smartest kid in the class to do it.
Victor: How do teachers use Quizlet in their classrooms?
Andrew: Teachers have come up with lots of cool ways to use Quizlet. Some just assign it for homework, some take their students to the computer lab to use it, and some just say "Hey, this is a great tool, use it." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YzSk1jTo90
Victor: There are 30+ mobile apps built off of Quizlet by 3rd party developers. How did this happen?
Andrew: We wanted to make Quizlet an open platform that would allow other people to build cool stuff using our data. We're a very small team, so we just don't have the resources to build an iPhone app, an android app, a windows phone app, a WebOS app, a blackberry app, etc. So we let other developers do it for us, and that's worked out really well. It's cool to see a lot of creative things people do with our data, some things we would never think of.
Victor: Why did you develop the new audio feature on Quizlet? How can teachers and students use it?
Andrew: People learn with all their senses, and hearing words is essential to retaining them and integrating them into your own speech. So it was obvious to build audio into Quizlet. Pronunciation is also a really important skill that can really only be done in one way: by listening.
We also have some new projects that we'll be releasing soon that do really cool things that are only possible with voice.
Victor: Volunteers have translated the site into additional languages. How did this come about?
Andrew: Some people in other countries were already using Quizlet, but we thought a lot more would use it all over the world if we translated it. Quizlet's community is already very diverse and many of them already know or are learning multiple languages. We found dozens of people using Quizlet who wanted to help out by translating Quizlet to their native language. So sure, why not? It's very cool to see the Quizlet interface written in characters I don't even know how to pronounce.
Victor: Why free when you could probably charge for Quizlet?
Andrew: Because the biggest opportunity for Quizlet is for it to become the platform that everyone uses to study, and the only way to scale like that is to have a free product. I think we can build a very strong business on a ad-supported model, with premium subscriptions available for some extra features. Also, the costs of running Quizlet are pretty low, so why should we charge a lot of money for it?
Victor: How has Quizlet been able to grow and be successful without spending anything on marketing?
Andrew: It's all about having a quality product. People share Quizlet with their friends because they find it very useful. It's really that simple.
Victor: How relevant are flashcards these days?
Andrew: Well, when I started Quizlet I didn't even think of it as flashcards, because I thought I had made something much better. I've never used flashcards in my life — it doesn't make a ton of sense to me that just looking at a card and telling yourself you know what's on it actually works very well. Quizlet forces you to type stuff out, and really prove that you know what you're saying. Quizlet also presents material in a lot of different ways, so you can tell you've mastered the material when you can handle each of the study modes easily. We call it flashcards because people understand that, and that's what people are looking for when they find Quizlet, but really Quizlet is a lot more than that.


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I'm writing an iOS app. Loving it too, learning a lot. More on that in a bit.
Today when I tried to update my github repostory, I received a certificate error that said "XCode can't verify the identity of the server github.com". Because I'm a paranoid idiot, I decided to get to the bottom of it.  A search on Stack Overflow scared the crap out of me — the "accepted" answer is to just "make the prompt go away" by blindly choosing to trust the certificate. That is theoretically the worst, laziest, most insecure answer in the world and we as an industry should be castigating such a brutal security recommendation, right? But before casting stones, what *should* be done?
Here's what I found about the intermediate certificate presented by github:
- The intermediate certificate that shows up in the certificate chain given by github.com is called "DigiCert High Assurance EV CA-1".
- It was issued Nov 9 2006, expiring Nov 9 2021.
- Â It has a SHA-1 fingerprint of 4A 35 8B 25 35 28 61 42 F6 0F 4E 9B 57 E2 AE 11 6D AB F0 F5.
- It was issued by a CA certificate called "DigiCert High Assurance EV Root CA" with a serial number of "08 BB B0 25 47 13 4B C9 B1 10 D7 C1 A2 12 59 C5".
- The certificate gets a little green checkmark to say that the certificate is valid. I assume this means that the certificate passed CRL and OSCP checks
To try to clear this up, I went to the Digicert website, to their root certificates page at https://www.digicert.com/digicert-root-certificates.htm, to validate this intermediate certificate. I downloaded the certificate called "DigiCert High Assurance EV CA-1" and confirmed that the downloaded cert matched what was shown on the website:
- There is an intermediate cert on the website called "Digicert High Assurance EV CA-1".
- It has a SHA-1 fingerprint of DB C7 E9 0B 0D A5 D8 8A 55 35 43 0E EB 66 5D 07 78 59 E8 E8.
- It was issued Nov 9, 2007, expiring Nov 9 2021.
- It was issued by a CA certificate called "DigiCert High Assurance EV Root CA" with a serial number of "03 37 B9 28 34 7C 60 A6 AE C5 AD B1 21 7F 38 60"
- The certificate gets a little green checkmark to say that the certificate is valid. I assume this means that the certificate passed CRL and OSCP checks
So, where does this leave us? Let's just recap.
- I get a warning about a certificate when I try to use XCode to go to github.
- When I view the certificate, the operating system pronounces the cert as "valid".
- Neither the thumbprint nor the issuer serial number match the values advertised by Digicert as the correct values for that intermediate CA certificate.
So what is an honest but paranoid person supposed to do now?  The chain presented by github both fails when XCode looks at it programatically (not that I can tell you exactly why the programmatic fail occurs) and when I attempt to manually validate.
It is very possible that Digicert has issued two intermediate CA certificates. For example companies define rollover certificates all the time, so that there is always one valid certificate for business continuity. But given that both these certificates expire on the same date, these particular certificates kinda suck as rollover certificates.  If DigiCert had reissued the CA certificate due to fraud or misadventure I would *hope* that one of these two certs should fail CRL and OSCP checks. But that hasn't happened either.
Conclusion: Based on the resources available to me, I have to conclude that the intermediate certificate offered by github is evil. Either that, or Digicert has wasted a bunch of my time by not simply documenting the second thumbprint for the second valid instantiation of the intermediate certificate.
If the former is true, I have no idea what to do. If the latter is true, I still have no idea what to do. Color me completely unable to move forward. Yay security.
For the 2 people who actually bothered to read this to the end, here is a screenshot of the three certificate detail screens for the intermediate certificate — the leftmost cert is the intermediate certificate from the github error, the middle cert details are from the intermediate cert downloaded from Digicert directly, and the rightmost window is the DigiCert details window.  Fill your boots. Any recommendation on how I could actually move forward here short of emailing digicert support would be gratefully accepted. I'll let you know what I find out from my email to firstname.lastname@example.com.


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An interesting new paper in Science today estimating the insanely fast growth in our technological capacity for storing and communicating information. Below is the abstract in full. Followed by a science-class documentary from the 1960s and beyond niftily explaining those pesky powers of ten.
We estimate the world's technological capacity to store, communicate, and compute information, tracking 60 analog and digital technologies during the period from 1986 to 2007. In 2007, humankind was able to store 2.9 × 1020 optimally compressed bytes, communicate almost 2× 1021 bytes, and carry out 6.4 × 1018 instructions per second on general-purpose computers. General-purpose computing capacity grew at an annual rate of 58%. The world's capacity for bidirectional telecommunication grew at 28% per year, closely followed by the increase in globally stored information (23%). Humankind's capacity for unidirectional information diffusion through broadcasting channels has experienced comparatively modest annual growth (6%). Telecommunication has been dominated by digital technologies since 1990 (99.9% in digital format in 2007), and the majority of our technological memory has been in digital format since the early 2000s (94% digital in 2007).
The authors of the Science paper close with these words:
To put our findings in perspective, the 6.4*1018 instructions per second that human kind can carry out on its general-purpose computers in 2007 are in the same ballpark area as the maximum number of nerve impulses executed by one human brain per second (1017) (36). The 2.4*1021 bits stored by humanity in all of its technological devices in 2007 is approaching order of magnitude of the roughly 1023 bits stored in the DNA of a human adult (37), but it is still minuscule compared to the 1090 bits stored in the observable universe (38). However, in contrast to natural information processing, the world's technological information processing capacities are quickly growing at clearly exponential rates.
The paper:
- Martin Hilbert and Priscila López. The World's Technological Capacity to Store, Communicate, and Compute Information. 2011. Science DOI: 10.1126/science.120097


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Teton County Integrated Solid Waste and Recycling (ISWR) sends their materials to ECS out of Santa Clara, CA. They are "E-Stewards" and "R2" certified which are the highest certifications available for responsible electronic recycling. However, if there are concerns we suggest finding a means to destroy the data on the hard drive. ISWR does not do any processing with the electronics.
Electronics are banned from the Teton County Trash Transfer Station. Electronics may be dropped at the Recycling Center or at other "R2" and "E-Steward" certified organizations to ensure responsible disposal of electronics.
Proper disposal and recycling of computers and electronics is top priority for Teton County Integrated Solid Waste and Recycling (ISWR) - specifically - making sure that electronic waste is not shipped to third world countries for dismantling and recycling. JCR sends e-waste to ECS Refining in Santa Clara, CA.
ECS operates an electronics recovery and recycling program driven by funding from electronics manufacturers. Established in Wyoming in 2011, ECS operates programs in Montana, Idaho and North and South Dakota - states in which there is no legislated responsibility or requirement to take back these materials.


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IT Trends | Feature
Virtualization has allowed Miami Dade College to eke more out of its existing equipment, save on some kinds of expenses, and in some cases improve service. The cons? As CIO Karl Herleman explained in this interview, juggling the sprawling virtualized mass of server and desktop software can be a real chore. And for cost savings, virtualization hasn't always been the winner.
There isn't a corner of Miami Dade College's (MDC) IT infrastructure that hasn't been touched by virtualization. For the last four years, CIO Karl Herleman has spearheaded a movement to virtualize just about every aspect of the Hialeah, FL-based college's technology equipment, from servers to desktops to data storage units.
"When I got here four years ago, the college had already started its push for virtualization with other technologies," said Herleman, a former enterprise architect for Gartner in Boston. He took the initiative to the next level after coming onboard. "At that point we made virtualization part of our operations," he said, "and since then its been applied just about everywhere."
MDC uses VMware's software for desktops, servers, and other devices. The school has applied the virtualization concept--which allows organizations to pool and share IT hardware and software and provides centralized management over technology assets and improved resource sharing--across much of its campus.
Herleman said key drivers for virtualization included the need to eke more out of MDC's existing equipment. "It was clear that there were some real advantages in using virtualization to drive machines harder and to buffer them from one another," Herleman explained, noting that the strategy also helps extend the life of obsolete equipment. With very old machines, for example, virtualization serves as a way to keep them running when you can't get hardware and/or support for them anymore.
The economy has also played a role in MDC's push for virtualization, said Herleman, whose department has been able to avoid buying new, physical servers and other pieces of equipment as a result of the strategy. "There are still licensing fees to pay, but even with those costs factored in it's still more economical to go virtualized than to buy new equipment," said Herleman.
Virtualization also allows for easier set up and faster fulfillment of new technology requests from users. "When we had to buy the hardware, the process took a couple of weeks to get through purchasing, not to mention having to wait for delivery and installation," said Herleman. "Now we throw together virtual machines in no time."
That compressed time period has increased user expectations dramatically, said Herleman, "even to the point where when I deal with a lot of 'non-technical' users who say to me, 'can we just create another virtual environment here?'" But remember, Herleman cautioned, that every one of those virtual environments still has to be managed, set up properly, and pointed in the direction of the correct databases and integrated systems.
"Virtualization doesn't come totally for free," said Herleman. "It does save money, and some time on provisioning, but these environments must still be patched and managed." Those tasks fall squarely upon the shoulders of MDC's IT team, which over the last four years has found itself focused on managing user expectations, which range from a perceived "ease" of creating the environments, to the massive "sprawl" that has occurred within the campus IT infrastructure.
"My team has gone from managing hundreds of servers to dealing with twice as many virtual environments, particularly on the server side," said Herleman. And while virtualization management tools have improved over the last few years, Herleman said juggling that sprawling mass of server and desktop software can be a real chore, particularly when staff expansions are out of the question.
With virtualization, there's also the issue of deciding which components should be on the system, and which should be handled in a more traditional manner. On the MDC campus right now, for example, desktop implementation of the software is "kind of in between the two," according to Herleman.
"We've done desktop virtualization on a few campuses, and we've completed a few pilots," he explained, "but we've kind of held off in that area because I was able to get a deal for a large refresh of our desktop PCs at below what it would have cost to use virtualized computers."
During his four years managing a virtualized environment at MDC, Herleman picked up a few good strategies for implementing such initiatives on a college campus. Have a plan in place before you start shopping around for the software, he said, and always keep an eye on the bottom line.
"You may not need all of the features and functionality that the software offers, so focus on matching the product with the use and the need," said Herleman, who constantly urges his IT team to look at driving down costs and finding solutions that don't impose additional fees.
"I'm a fan of VMware, but the savings aren't as great as they once were with that [option]," said Herleman. "Hopefully we'll see more competition among vendors. Microsoft offers a fairly viable platform that may not be as full-featured as VMware, but that is 'close enough' for a lot of organizations."
With the infrastructure in place, use good naming conventions and repeatable documents, said Herleman, and always ask users how and why the virtualization is going to be utilized. "You don't want to proliferate a bunch of environments just because users ask for them," he said. "Plan ahead, and use as many repeatable processes as possible in order to standardize, and avoid excessive sprawl and 'rogue' machines that wind up unmanaged or unused."
About the Author
Bridget McCrea is a business and technology writer in Clearwater, FL. She can be reached at [email protected].
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